Less than a day after Haaretz first reported that Israel has refused to grant a work visa for a Human Rights Watch investigator, the government has backtracked on the Foreign Ministry and Population and Immigration Authority’s decision.

“Isaac Herzog, the Israeli opposition leader and head of the Zionist Union party, issued a ‘Ten-Point Plan‘ for a restarted peace process,” writes Mitchell Plitnick. “Unfortunately, his plan would likely accomplish only one of those goals, the one already a fait accompli: maintaining the settlement blocs.”

US-Israel relations

President Donald Trump on Thursday expressed a preference for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but again said he would be happy with any framework acceptable to the two sides, elaborating on comments he made last week at a joint press conference with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday he remains in favor of a pardon for Hebron shooter Elor Azariya, saying that the “problem” was not the sentence, but rather the “circumstances” that created the incident.

Gaza

The Israeli right claims that the 2005 disengagement from Gaza failed dangerously. A new study from Molad – the Center for the Renewal of Israeli Democracy, shows that it actually improved Israel’s security and international standing.